Persons with hearing impairments may use one or more techniques to understand audible speech and/or other sounds originating from another person or a device. For example, where a speaker is speaking and a hearing impaired person can see the speaker's mouth, the person may use lip reading techniques to understand the content of the speech. However, to use such techniques necessitates that the person learn lip reading techniques. Further, where the person's view of the speaker's mouth is limited or blocked, such techniques may offer less than satisfactory assistance.
Another possibility is for a third party to translate the speech to a particular sign language which may be understood by a person knowledgeable in that sign language. A third party may also transcribe the speech into a written form which may be read by the person. However, having a third party available to perform such translation or transcription imposes significant constraints.
Another approach may use speech recognition technology to receive, interpret, and visually present speech to a hearing impaired person. However, the accuracy of such technology typically suffers when the speaker does not speak clearly and directly into the receiving microphone, and/or when background noise is excessive. Accordingly, and especially in noisy and crowded environments, such technology may be impractical and less than helpful. Further, able-hearing persons may also encounter situations involving many people and/or excessive noise, such as social gatherings, trade shows, etc., in which it is difficult or impossible to hear another person's speech.